


Another Kangaroo Court

by MagicInHerMadness



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Kangaroo Court, Multi, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-06 02:04:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8730418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicInHerMadness/pseuds/MagicInHerMadness
Summary: The Padres hold another kangaroo court during a rain delay. Mike and Ginny are brought up on some interesting charges.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the tumblr prompt: kangaroo court ends in a Bawson kiss

Thunder boomed through the clubhouse's thin walls and Mike frowned as he leaned back in his seat. He looked over at Blip. "They've gotta call it, especially since those guys got struck by ground lightning in that soccer game in LA."

Blip nodded, stretched out his legs. "They're still gonna dick around for an hour so we're stuck."

Mike looked over at his friend and smiled. "Kangaroo court?"

Blip grinned, sitting up in his chair. "It's been like a month since the last one."

He stood and went around gathering the team while Mike pulled his gavel box from his locker. He went to a deserted locker and took out the box where complaints were submitted then headed to the other locker room that they had left set up for just such occasions. The team trickled in, many of them smiling and joking about the last session of court during which Butch had been fined for taking home an "uggo" from a bar during a team outing. He'd blamed beer goggles but still paid the thirty dollars.

Ginny was one of the first to arrive, bouncing to her seat and sitting before him with her normal grin. "When they call it, do you wanna get food or something?"

"Your treat?" he questioned.

She rolled her eyes like the little shit she was, that smile still on her face. "Are you putting out? Cause nothing's free, old man."

Mike laughed. "Then maybe I should call your tab, rookie."

Blip plopped down beside him and he realized the rest of the room was full. He assumed his judge posture, slapping on his sternest look. "Okay so everyone knows the rules. Twenty dollars for talking out of turn. Twenty for using the B or C word since there's a lady--loose at the interpretation of the word may be--present. Ten dollars for multi-syllable swears. Five for single-syllables. "

Ginny rolled her eyes, leaning back in her chair. Blip opened the complaint box and pulled out the first slip. "Butch broke the urinal rule."

Mike narrowed his eyes and squinted at Butch. "How do you plead, you animal?"

Before he could answer, Ginny raised her hand. Mike rolled his eyes but acknowledged her. "What's the urinal rule?"

"You don't use the urinal next to another guy if there are others available," Hanan explained from his seat beside her.

Ginny frowned at him. "And that's a rule because..."

"Too many risks. What if he looks? What if you look by accident? What if he's a splasher? What if he’s a talker?" Hanan shook his head. "It's just impolite."

"That's ridiculous," Ginny replied with a laugh.

Mike smirked at her then looked at Butch. "Unfortunately Baker's opinion doesn't count here. How do you plead?"

Everyone turned to look at Butch. "Guilty but in my defense I was tanked and got to the closest urinal I could find."

Mike shook his head. "Your testimony does not sway the court. Fifty dollar fine. Twenty-five for the offense, and twenty-five because you disgust me. Next case."

Butch laughed as he nodded.

Blip took out another slip. Mike watched him frown at it before he looked up. He turned to Mike. "Side bar?"

They swiveled their chairs around and Blip showed him the paper. Mike read it and his jaw clenched. Blip remained expressionless though the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned. "You've gotta recuse yourself, cap."

Mike shook his head. "That's bullshit. We're throwing it out."

"Can't throw it out without a unanimous vote," Blip reminded him.

Mike frowned harder then shook his head. He handed over his gavel. "This is unbelievable."

They swiveled back around to face the other players and Blip finally let his smile break through. "Because he is a co-defendant in the next case, our judge and jury Mike Lawson has recused himself per Kangaroo Court rules. Also per the rules, this will be a trial by jury because our captain's on trial and can't make the ruling."

Mike's eyes flitted over the room of smiling players. He smirked until he got to Ginny who was grinning too and his mouth fell into a hard line. Blip banged his gavel then read the charge. "Mike Lawson has been charged with excessive PDA. His co-conspirator is allegedly Ginny Baker."

The smile fell off Ginny's face, replaced by a frown deep enough to make her dimples pop. "What?"

Blip banged his gavel. "That's twenty, Baker. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty. I'd also like to confront my accuser."

"We'll table that until we hear your co-defendant's plea." He turned to Mike who was scowling at the floor. "Lawson?"

"Not guilty." He finally looked up at the rest of the room. "I would also like to confront my accuser."

Blip shook his head. "You both know there can be no confrontation unless your accuser names himself. But if it pleases the court, anyone with evidence may submit it now."

Mike stared daggers at the whole room, wondering which of them would speak first and fry his ass. His eyes landed on Robles and he had a good idea of who made the complaint, especially when the second baseman said, "You two were cuddling on the bus after we played the Dodgers."

"We were asleep!" Ginny exclaimed. She recalled waking up with her head on Mike's shoulder, her arm slung over his midsection, but the bus seats were small and she needed to stretch out her pitching arm.

Someone pointed out, “It happens on every trip though.”

A murmur of agreement rippled through the room and Blip banged his gavel for silence.

"You were tickling him at the cages yesterday," Butch volunteered.

"That was—" Ginny stopped, her mouth hanging open, because she had no explanation for that one other than Mike was being his usual grumpy self and she was amusing herself needling him. She turned to Mike for help but he only shook his head. There was no plausible defense for that.

"You guys argued over a grape soda this morning." Ginny wasn't sure who leveled the accusation.

"Arguments aren’t affectionate," Mike argued.

"Yeah but you pinched her nose and she laughed and you let her have it." Apparently Stubbs could miss a fly ball by a country mile but had perfect vision in the clubhouse when no one knew he was watching. A few others muttered other instances where Mike had tweaked Ginny’s nose. He knew he did it but it wasn’t necessarily affectionate. She just had a cute nose and she didn’t like his pinching it so naturally—He kept that excuse to himself.

"You two are always sharing chairs," Hanan offered.

"Traitor," Ginny muttered, tossing him a severe look. It was easier to sit on the arm of Mike’s chair than get his lazy ass out of it.

"And bumping shoulders," Livan added, raising his hands in surrender when Ginny shot him a death look.

The complaints rolled in like clockwork, one after another the players listed their transgressions. Mike was always eating off Ginny's plate. Ginny had been seen pinching Mike's cheeks, calling him a "crankypants" as they went over hitters. Mike had refused Salvamini the remaining half of his Three Musketeers but given it to Ginny without complaint.

The problem wasn't that they had proof. Mike would pay the fine because that was what you did. The fines would all go to the booze bank for the end of season party. The previous season there had been enough infractions for them to go on an actual booze cruise. The problem was that all of this had gone on seemingly without knowledge. Each accusation recalled a memory in startling clarity but he knew that at the time nothing had struck him as odd about the interaction. And he could have made the weak argument about the special nature of the pitcher-catcher bond, but he'd had pitchers before that he hated off the field, wouldn't have spit on if they were on fire unless it was during a game. And Rachel's biggest critique of him was his distance (what could he say? he wasn't a man who liked to be touched). How had this happened?

A few feet away, Ginny was mulling over the same questions. She had always been friendly, and reasonably affectionate. But listening to her teammates recount story after story of her apparently frequent dalliances with her captain seemed to be shedding light on a different issue. Even Blip—Judas—offered an anecdote about her eating out of Mike's hand at a bar. She was almost positive she'd been tanked, but as she'd learned from Stubbs' many trials, alcohol wasn't a plausible defense. And that incident aside, she had no excuse for the others, or memory of feeling inappropriate at the time. Touching Mike was just something she did. (Shoving her socked feet under one of his monstrous thighs for warmth on the bus. Bumping his elbow to get his attention so they could share an inside joke. Hugging him after she kicked Blip’s ass at ping pong.) And something he did back. (His hands on her hips helping her line up for a swing. His incessant tweaking of her nose. She even recalled him sticking his index fingers in her dimples as he teased her about smiling at one of his infrequent compliments.) It was all normal. Right? Well, normal was a relative term anyway so…”

She lifted her eyes to look at him and he only shook his head. "Okay so what's the fine?"

"You haven't been found guilty by a jury of your peers yet, Lawson," Blip replied.

Ginny smirked. "But our peers are also our accusers so we're guilty by default."

Blip nodded. "That's true. I think a hundred has a nice ring to it. Split it however you please."

Before they could move on, Al poked his head in the room. "They're calling it. Two lightning in strikes in twenty minutes. Pack it in and go home."

It didn't take long for the team to clear out, everyone hurrying in case they changed their minds. Ginny lingered in the room when she saw Mike still planted in his chair. She said sarcastic goodbyes to the rest of the team, hanging back until everyone was gone. She walked over to her frowning captain and perched on the edge of the table. "You're gonna cover the fine, right?"

His gaze snapped to her. "And why would I do that?"

Ginny shrugged. "The charges were brought against you. I was an accessory."

"You were a co-conspirator. There's a difference."

"Not a huge one," Ginny argued.

"Titles aside, you should pay the fine because you're the one who's always touching me."

"Like fuck I am," Ginny scoffed.

"Like fuck you aren't."

"You were the one feeling me up yesterday in the cages."

"I was correcting your stance because it's crooked."

Neither story was completely accurate. Ginny's stance was indeed a little off because Bill had forced her to learn to bat left-handed (a surprise, he had called it) and the Padres always made her bat right, but Mike had also taken his time correcting her hips and there was a particularly charged moment when he'd splayed his hand flat over her chest to guide her in the follow-through. But someone had to correct her since the other guys were all apparently 15 and couldn't touch her without going red in the face.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Let's just go halfsies."

Mike gave an eyeroll of his own. "That's what I was gonna suggest before you tried to cheat me."

"Oh whatever." She pushed off the table and Mike got out of the chair, rolling his neck around before he fell in step with his long-legged rookie as they went back to the common room. Ginny went to her locker and collected her already packed bag then walked over to Mike's locker, watching as he threw clothes in the bag.

She was closer than he'd expected her to be when he stood upright and he had to sway back to stop their chests from bumping. His expression held its usual seriousness as he looked down at her. "Does it bother you? The touching?"

Ginny shook her head. "I don't even notice it."

"Me either."

"Why though?" She pulled her lip between her teeth and looked at him.

Mike shook his head. "Let's save that for when we talk about everything else wrong with our relationship, Ginny."

Ginny could remember almost every time he'd touched her, but she had lost count of how many talks they'd shelved for the off-season, or at least when they weren't teammates anymore. Their frowns were almost identical. Dating someone when you had walls was one thing. Dating someone when you had walls and they did too was another. Dating someone when you both had walls and a million reasons to not be together was something else entirely. She nodded and turned to leave ahead of him but his hand caught her face, his fingers wrapping around her neck so his thumb could caress the curve of her jaw. It was interesting, almost bordering on magical, how they could touch in so many ways and nothing would be different until they looked at each other just so. A smile curled Mike's lips. "Hey."

Ginny couldn't help grinning back. "Hey."

This was definitely one of those things that should have waited until they weren't teammates anymore, but one taste (the night she’d eaten out of his hand had also been the night they’d shared a seemingly inevitable kiss when he drove her home) had birthed an addiction. Mike slanted his mouth over hers and pecked her lips, separately then together. His other hand pulled her close and Ginny snaked her arms around his neck.

Unbeknownst to them, they had an audience for this moment of affection as well. Al stood outside the door, frowning through the slim pane of glass that allowed him an unintentional view. He wasn't surprised. He sure as hell wasn't gonna be the one to bring it up to anyone either.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave kudos/comment!!! XOXOXOXO


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